THE CCAM AS OPERATIONAL SEASONAL

FORECAST SYSTEMWillem A. Landman

Francois Engelbrecht

Ruth Park

Building an optimized CCAM seasonal forecast system

Objective: to produce skilful seasonal forecasts at lead-times up to 6 months

Operational seasonal forecast development is a function of the ability of the next “best” system to outscore the current base-line skillAfter AGCMs, CGCMs is theoretically the next “best”

system (challenge for WG3) Optimal systems have the best chance to

capture important modes of variability and their link to SADC’s seasonal-to-interannual variability A large AMIP and hindcast data set will be

available for this purpose: Challenge for WG1

Old operational approach

Verification of old system: Limpopo(also a challenge for WG2)

WG3: To improve on drought forecasting

Streamflow forecast skill (DJF)

850 hPa CCAM simulations downscaled to streamflow

New operational approach

NCEP/GFS

Model Output StatisticsAtmospheric ICs

Boundary ConditionsResolution ~200km

Should we direct (some of) our focus to the southern/mid-latitudinal ocean?Challenge for WG3?

AUG ICs

SEP ICs

OCT ICs

NOV ICs

Predicted Subtropical Dipole Modes during 2010/11

Inclusion of SINTEX-F forecasts in the MM should improve skill

Imminent development

AMIP1979 to 20086 ensemble members

Hindcasts with predicted SSTs1982 to 201010 ensemble members

Verification statisticsSVSLRF

Applying forecasts toStreamflowMaize yield

What about the land? Land surface conditions may modulate the response of the

atmospheric circulation to SST anomalies Agents of climate memory at the land surface

Soil moisture Snow cover State of vegetation

“If the general circulation alone determines local anomalies, and SST determines the general circulation, then there is little hope for enhancing prediction during boreal summer by improved land surface representation”

Is there latent predictability over a land region to be harvested from the land surface state? If so, would it supersede SST influences?

CCAM will be integrated, coupled to the dynamic land-surface model CABLE, in an attempt to investigate the relative role of the land-surface in forcing seasonal rainfall and temperature anomalies over southern Africa

ENSEMBLES

Strong anthropogenically forced warming trends have been observed over southern Africa and are projected to continue to rise, consequently justifying the investigation into how the annual update of greenhouse gas (GHG) concentrations in a global model may affect seasonal forecast performance over the region.

1901-2002

Future plans: SATREPS-2 ??

APPLICATIONS

Medium- to extended-range (beyond 3 days)

Seasonal forecast system (current

SATREPS)

1-3 years; decadal

Maize yieldRiver flow

Diseases

Livestock

Tornado Sunday

Hundreds of homes were destroyed in Ficksburg in the Free State. Another tornado hit the East Rand and caused extensive damage to Duduza, near Nigel. Two children died.

Final comments… Optimal AGCM configuration will benefit from sensitivity

studies using AMIP (to determine, for example, Cu scheme, etc.) [WG3]

Resources should continue to be directed towards AGCM optimization [WG3]about ½ resources required compared to CGCMs – higher resolution,

bigger ensemble SA modellers focussing on CGCM development/use – must outscore

baseline to justify effort More effort should be directed towards analysing AGCM

hindcast/AMIP data to understand processes [WG1] Hindcast global SST set: 28 years, 6 months lead-time, AND

operational SST forecasts available from CSIR FTP site (UCT-CSAG already using it for AGCM predictions, soon at SAWS and at CSIR) [WG3/4]

Strong emphasis on applications modelling [WG4]